With opposition support, PRO secures press decree for debate

An alliance between Project South and Civic Coalition opposition parties with the ruling PRO party paved the way for BA City Mayor Mauricio Macri’s controversial press decree to be cleared for debate.

Helio Rebot -head of the Buenos Aires City Legislature Constitutional Affairs Committee where the DNU emergency decree issued by Mayor Mauricio Macri was cleared for debate today-, confirmed PRO legislators have managed to secure the bill that aims at “defending freedom of expression” in the Argentine capital’s jurisdiction with the support of such opposition blocs.

“The DNU will be ratified by the Legislature because it already counts with the (Constitutional Affairs) Committee’s dispatch and the PRO party has the 31 necessary votes to pass it at the session,” legislator Alejandro García said prior to the Committee’s debate.

Meanwhile, the Kirchnerite bloc continued to reject Macri’s move considering it serves Clarín media group’s interests in its long-standing dispute with the central administration of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner over Argentina’s government-sponsored, anti-monopoly media legislation that obliges Clarín to dismantle its media empire.